So I'm just going to give an example of -- in sixth grade, I'm sorry, I said fifth grade. But IXL. A lot of people know about IXL; it's a learning platform, supposed to be educational. But I don't think it's educational, exactly. You just practice your knowledge when you already know it and it kind of takes you down, you know, when you get something wrong. It's timing you constantly and you feel the pressure, and when you get something wrong, it takes you down and it doesn't really build you up, you know? And slowly -- like, if you're at 99 you can get to, like, 90 if you just get one wrong, and then you have to do like five more questions just to be able to finish it. So I really don't like that about IXL. And I also feel like you can practice your knowledge in some other way. It doesn't really help you. So anyways, I stood up and I started a petition against IXL in sixth grade and I passed it around the classroom, which is probably not a very good idea. Actually got an online signature from one of my friends, too, but.

What's the coolest thing you think you've ever found on a beach?  We once went biking, and then we came across this little private beach area, but it was like really weird 'cause it was clearly a public beach but then it was covered up by vines. And when we went down there, we found like this whole camping set up sort of thing, but it looked like it hadn't been used or touched or anything in so long. Do you remember that?  Uh-uh. It's really cool. What lake was that on? Michigan. So you found a -- an abandoned campsite. Have you found anything else that's kind of cool on a beach? We found a potato rock, a rock that resembled an actual potato. Other than that, I don't think so.  You don't think Petoskey stones are cool? Well, they are, but they're pretty common. There's always Petoskey around.

So I had to be like five, four years old, when this happened, but it's still a vivid memory. And I remember this, this is probably my youngest like real memory that I have, and it was terrifying. So, I went down to Chicago, and I stayed for a week with my aunt and uncle all by myself, which -- and my cousins was well, who are my age and then also an older cousin who was now in college. But -- so I had to sleep on an air mattress in the ground with my older cousin, who's nineteen now in their room. And my mattress was like, right next to their bed. And somehow during a night, I'm just sleeping on the bed and it was like, not -- the air mattress wasn't like full of air. And so, it's kind of like, whenever you roll around , there's not air where you're laying. And so, somehow when I woke up in the middle of the night, I'm under my cousin's bed, and I'm like, am I blind? I can't see, what's happening? And I try to get up, and I bumped to my head. I'm like, oh my gosh. I'm under my cousin's bed right now. And so I start screaming 'cause I'm unable to get out. It was like, small. I don't know how I got under there. And -- so I'm just trying to squish my way out, but I get to about my chest, like I somehow got my legs out, and I'm just stuck. And so, my aunt comes in, she sees my legs are out from under the bad, and she's like, oh my gosh, she's just tugging my legs, and she's just tugging it. And after like half an hour, took a really long time, I got out, and it was just really scary, and I still remember that.

Okay, any headlines that you heard about or saw this week that stuck out for you?  That we were doing an escape room in our hippy dippy class.  What did the escape room entail? What was it supposed to teach you? It was supposed to teach us about mindfulness, but it taught us how to rebuild the lamp from scratch. Cause a boy shot a lamp with a Nerf gun, and then it fell over and we had to rebuild it. It didn't break, but we had to figure out how to set it back up.  So, did you enjoy rebuilding the map -- lamp more than you enjoyed your escape room? Yeah.  Why? Nobody paid attention to me, but they clearly heard me. And a few seconds later, they would always say the exact same -- use the exact same wording that I used. Was this your team? Yeah. 

I have a biological sister and an adopted sister and they're both, like, I care about them the same amount. It doesn't matter that one of them is biological and the other one's adopted because they're both amazing sisters and I wouldn't trade them for the world. Just having my sister be my sister. And not -- like I don't consider her my adopted sister, you know, I consider her my sister. And a lot of people probably have friends that they consider family. And they can consider their friends their family. Because you don't have to be biologically related to be related. You can have a family that is completely not your family. Like, I don't know. My best friend that moved away, she was like a sister to me. Sometimes we argued, but she was always like my sister and now I feel like I'm going to cry, but, you know, yeah. My sister, my adopted sister, she's just as much a sister to me as my biological sister and that's what -- that's just so important to know. Like it doesn't matter, like how different you look or what your DNA is. You can be related.

Have you ever played in the snow yet this year? What did you do? So yeah, I did. I played in the snow this year. Only once because we haven't really had snow that much. Yeah, so I went outside and actually, we buried my sister and then my sisters buried me, and I was just -- it was funny, you know? I was just like buried in the snow, like literally, they buried my neck down and I asked them, "Hey, can you get my phone and take a video, or a slow-mo video and some pictures?" And so I did that, it was pretty funny and I'll say that. It was pretty funny. Just looking at the pictures and being like, "I'm in that? My head looks so small compared to like that big glob of snow." So yeah, that -- I did play in the snow this year and it was really, really fun experience.

And the difference between glad and happy, I kind of like -- happy sort is like a bit excited maybe or feeling like really in the mood for something. And being glad means you're not just happy, but it means you're happy about something else, sort of. Sometimes I can feel like maybe on Christmas, I feel glad for presents maybe. And I might feel a bit glad for like... Hmm. Maybe well, I don't really know what else to be glad, but like happy, to me, sort of feels like maybe like, so like happy would be like, excited like "yes, let's do this, yeah!" Like that sort of.

So you're excited for Christmas because of new toys?  And just other stuff. Like what?  Maybe I might get some Roblox. I don't really know because how could I know.  I know but you wrote your letter, didn't you, to Santa?  But Santa doesn't -- Santa can't always get those things. And you also -- I also will get presents from like you and Daddy and so I probably have some presents. Yeah.  Is there anything about Christmas that makes you nervous?  What? Well, no, not really. Well, actually there is one thing that -- actually there isn't. But I kind of have been thinking something about Christmas. You know like the Christmas presents down at the -- at your Christmas tree or like the ones you told Santa you wanted and the ones in the stockings Santa is the one who picked those. I kind of think that like Santa Claus gets to pick those and you get to pick the other ones.  So you're nervous about what Santa's going to pick for you?  No, no, no, not what. I am not nervous about anything at Christmas.  OK.

So what's the best gift you've ever gotten? Well, hard to decide. Then the top three. Does it have to be Christmas? No. It can be any time. Okay. One, when Dad got us chickens. I don't know if it was a present, but it was still awesome to get chickens. A cute one, our neighbors gave us since we were doing something called fairy presents for them, they gave us this cute sticker sheet and a doll back, which was just cute and heartfelt so. And the last... You said anything. I said anything. When her cat dropped a dead cockroach at Mom's feet, that wasn't a present to me, but it was a present to her. And it was one of the best presents ever? For you, yes.